Samsung's Gear watches will help with senior care and employee safety

Samsung is taking on the world of work via three new integrations with its Gear smartwatches. SoloProtect uses the Samsung Gear S3 to keep tabs on people who work alone, like real estate agents and home healthcare workers, while Reemo integrates with the Gear S3 and S2 to monitor the health of seniors in care facilities. Ability Wearables, along with Samsung's Gear Fit 2 and S3 devices, helps keep track of people who work long shifts, like truck drivers, construction employees and healthcare workers. Samsung is spotlighting these and a VR solution for fitness centers at the Mobile World Congress Americas conference in San Francisco this week.

SoloProtect is a 24/7 monitoring and communication service that provides emergency alerts, geo-location and status checks to businesses that employ lone workers in higher-risk environments. "Safety and reliability are top of mind for all employers, but historically, it has been difficult to manage safety for individual employees operating outside the traditional office setting," said SoloProtect CEO John Broady in a statement. "By equipping workers with a high-quality Samsung smartwatch integrated with SoloProtect, we can help businesses increase the safety of those operating alone in the field, and provide them with the ability to concentrate on their task at hand with greater peace of mind."

Reemo's platform tracks activity level, heart rate and sleep quality of seniors in care centers, which can help their caregivers provide better care. "We're thrilled to join Samsung at Mobile World Congress Americas this year to further demonstrate mobile technology's impact in the senior care industry," said Reemo's CEO, John Valiton, in a statement. "Samsung's enablement of the Reemo platform through its wearable devices has made technology truly accessible to seniors by providing mobility, safety, awareness and connectivity to create independence in the aging experience."

People at risk for falling asleep on the job can wear a Gear smartwatch that connects through Samsung's GearUP platform to connect with Ability Wearables' real-time health intelligence systems, letting employers both predict and react to employee fatigue on the job. "Samsung is pushing the envelope with its range of wearables," said Ability's CEO Shiv Madan in a statement. "By applying this collaborative solution to employees at high-risk of fatigue, we believe we can help solve many of the fatigue-driven challenges facing today's workers."

Samsung is also dabbling in exercise programs, too. VirZoom VR Fitness gives fitness center members the ability to hop on a stationary exercise bike from Life Fitness and play virtual reality games while getting fit. Users will move through a virtual world at the same rate they pedal, making for perhaps a more immersive experience. The resistance buttons on the stationary bike's handlebars are also used in the gameplay as well.